I am a WebcamXP/Webcam7 user from 2009. I run a home brew security system with it. It has worked great for 7 years. I had analog cameras. The capture card gave up the ghost so I thought this is a good opportunity to upgrade to newer stuff. I am hoping to transition to netcamstudio with wireless network cameras.

I bought 3 refurbished Foscam FI9805W cameras. Only one works. I'm returning the other two.

Here is my question:

What wireless outdoor cameras with IR work well with netcamstudio and are known to be reliable? Somewhere around the $100 price each, and not Foscam.

Netcamstudio looks pretty good so far. More control than in Webcam7. Hopefully it will be stable.

Hi Robert!This is actually a really difficult question that we try to stay away from. There are so many cameras out there and for a number of months back the market is full of new megapixel cams from China that actually are quite good. Your price level is also on the budget side where you can find a lot of good and bad stuff. When you have found something search for that cam on the Internet. People share their experience a lot today . Also there is a list of supported cameras on the NCS homepage. That list is really not complete today since there are new ways to connect NCS and the cam, see below.

I will give you some directions to make our life easier when connecting the cam to NCS.- if you want a really reliable system stay away from wifi. It is easy to work with etc. but now you are continuously streaming video that puts other demand on the system than browsing the Internet and checking mail.- the camera should support the ONVIF standard which makes it very easy to connect to NCS. If it do not support ONVIF make sure to have the URL that defines how NCS and the camera communicates with each other. It looks like this rtsp://ipnumber/xxx . Some manufacturers write that very clear in the manual or one can see that in the configuration of the camera or search on the Internet.- IR range. Check how long distance the manufacturer promise. Low priced cams are maybe 5-8 meters. Above that better IR LEDs are needed and the cams are usually more expensive. If you want the motion detection system to work on 25-30 meters you might need an extra IR source.

why not Foscam? They are IMHO the best budget-friendly cam's on the market. They stand way above the cheapo china cams. The FI9900 is really good, especially for that budget. I currently have multiple foscams running for 3-4 years without any issue.